The best walks and hikes around Beaufou

The Château would date from the mid-13th century; at the time it was a true fortress, flanked by six towers and surrounded by wide moats. From the 12th to the 14th century, this fortified castle served as a lock between Brittany and Poitou, in this border region where numerous strongholds stood: Pornic, Machecoul, Clisson, Tiffauges, Champtocé in the Marches of Brittany facing Commequiers, La Garnache, Palluau, Montaigu, Pouzauges, in lower Poitou. In the 17th century, Philippe de Clérembault, who inherited the family estate, was promoted to Marshal of France by the young King Louis XIV, and then undertook to rebuild his Château de Palluau to transform the old fortress into a modern castle, retaining the six large medieval towers and including between them a building covered with a Mansart roof, topped by a dome. The Marshal's castle was a unique building in all of Poitou: "the most regular and the most accomplished that exists in the region", according to Claude Masse, famous engineer-geographer to Louis XIV. Abandoned by its owners during the Revolution, the large empty residence served as a stronghold for the royalists in 1793 and its underground passages, as dungeons for republican prisoners. On February 8, 1794, a Republican Column set fire to the Château and the Church of Palluau. The site has never been rebuilt, nor even consolidated since. It remains in a state of ruin abandoned to vegetation. The Château de Palluau must have been a magnificent residence, judging by the imposing ruins that remain and by the plans and watercolor drawings by Claude Masse, which are preserved at the Museum of Engineering in Vincennes.

I couldn't get as close as guigui during his hike because a barrier blocked the path. You can see it well despite everything.

Beautiful fishing pond, at the foot of the Petit-Luc hillside

The Chapelle du Petit-Luc was built on the site of the old Notre Dame du Petit Luc church, destroyed by a hellish column on February 28, 1794. Inside you can read the names of the 564 people killed during this terrible massacre.

This building, inaugurated in 1993 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, pays tribute to the victims of the Infernal Columns, and more specifically to those who died in the Lucs-sur-Boulogne massacre on February 28, 1794, during the Terror, during which more than 500 civilians were likely murdered. The building is part of the beautiful Boulogne Park.

Museum of the history of Vendée, from prehistory to the present day. The museum also presents temporary exhibitions on various themes.

chapel marking the wars of Vendée

Here is one of the most mysterious megaliths in the country. It features 362 enigmatic engravings. Sometimes called Pierre de Merlière and in connection with the apparitions of a white lady, sometimes called Palet de Gargantua and in connection with the famous giant, according to the most widespread tradition, the strange marks come from leprechauns who would have hidden a treasure under the Pierre. The engravings would either represent a game they were playing, called a caguenette, or they would magically protect the stone from anyone who wanted to move it to get their hands on the treasure. Officially, we do not know who engraved these shapes, nor when. According to historians, they probably date from the Neolithic era but their meaning remains, and will remain, one of the greatest mysteries in France ...